Sunday, October 2, 2016

Obie
gave the following presentation at last month’s CRAN (Custom Residential Architects
Network) Symposium.The first half of
the basic text and images is posted here and the second half will be posted
next month.

●I’ve always had a strong affinity for
the natural landscape and as a result have acquired a lot of insight – not the least of which is how little I really know
– nevertheless I hope to pass on
some things I think I know.

●I’ve only got time to barely touch on
a number of topics I feel are important but theprimary intent is to try to be helpful to you so if you
want to ask questions at any time goright
ahead.

●I feel fortunate to have had both the
opportunity, and what I feel is the responsibility, towork in partnership with the natural landscape.

●I don’t necessarily expect you to
think I know the things I think I know - you have tofind your own priorities and your own way – but I have been
paying attention to the world
around me for quite a while now.

●I think you’re going to like this
presentation.

●By way of introduction I think a good
place to start is with people – design is for people, not publications or allegiance to a particular methodology – the
whole purpose ofarchitecture is
to support our way of life.

●The earth is an extraordinary place –
there are more resources, more love, and morewonderful
creations than we can dreams of...

●What’s better than young lovers on top
of Notre Dame Cathedral?

●And there are more wonderful little children
than we can embrace…But all of us are notcreated
equal – or given equal opportunity.

●And this raises the issue ofhow we determine what is fair, right, or
wrong – especiallin a world as
stressed and confused as ours?What does
it all mean?

●As a student and afterwards I long
struggled with the search for meaning – in architectureand in life.Eventually
I came to see that there were so many things beyond my controlthat all I could really determine was
how I respond to life’s actions upon me.

●Another thing that contributes to
meaning for me is that I am grateful to have been born a human rather than one of a myriad of
other creatures and for not having life cut short in my youth – I think this has resulted in a strong personal work
ethic.

●We architects are fortunate to have numerous
sources to consider for guides toarchitectural
meaning as well as a source of inspiration.Our architectural history includes
a tremendous heritage of nature conscious architects – HH Richardson, Sullivan,
Wright, and others.Sullivan more for his proselytizing and
Wright more for his doing.

●This drawing is titled Louis Sullivan Contemplating Coexistence with Nature.Manybuildings
are diminished by age, but many Wright houses only improve, like this,theMillard
House in Pasadena.

●Other poignant sources of meaning and
inspiration are the agricultural structures thatdot the rural landscape.These structures often have more meaning for me than most of their design refined contemporaries.

●I suspect the strong, simple values of
their builders had a lot to do with the strong, simpleforms, and, sometimes, intense sense of belonging of
these straight-forward buildings.

●I’m sure many of the most important
values I bring to my work are the outgrowth ofexperiences
of my youth.

●I grew up in the San Fernando Valley
at a time when it was predominantly agricultural -alfalfa fields, orange and walnut groves – and the Los Angeles
River was a wonderful source of boyhood
experience.I became particularly
interested in reptiles and amphibians.

●As I grew up other interests attracted
my attention: things like girls, football, and cars –I went off to college – and at some point realized that the river’s
wildness had been replaced with a
concrete channel and the land with a desolate suburbanization.

●This trauma created a paradox I have
struggled with ever since – a love of architectureand a need to respect the natural landscape.

●After working a few years in Los
Angeles I decided to leave the city, go out on my own, and have a small scale, lower impact practice in a rural setting.

●This is The Sea Ranch here on the
Sonoma County Coast where I had my first office forover 25 years.It is a
development deeply consciousof trying
to work with and preservethe
natural landscape.

●Although my first project received a lot of recognition it took many years (a decade) before I felt like I had a handle on who I was and what I wanted to do as an architect.I would spend a lot of time at the site, do a site analysis, but it took a lot of experience to meld myfeelings and intuition with cognitive analysis of the project

●Over years I eventually came to see that much of what I cared about – and was good at – had to do with siting buildings in the landscape.I think this was because it was something I truly caredabout.There are a few things I think I know that I would like to share with you so I’m going toincludethem in some projects I’m about to show.

●This
is the Brunsell House which I think of as the first house where I pretty much got
the entire project under control –
not perfect, but without many glaring deficiencies.

●Probably the most significant thing I
can share is the idea – the value – of working with the opportunities of the site – partnering with the
landscape.

● An open, flat site like this with
very little to relate to is probably the most difficult siting challenge there is.By using an earth covered roof the house
repeats the slope of the coastal hills
and with a Zen yin and yang-like solution
the house is not only a part of the meadow,
the meadow is also a part of the house.

●This is a passive solar house in a
coastal meadow with northerly winds being deflected up and over the southerly glazing and sunken deck.

●I obviously wanted to continue the
native landscape onto the roof and this raised a number of concerns like “what about gophers?”

●Over the years I’ve come to believe
that there is real value to the native species of plantsand animals if we are able to retain
continuity – not wall them off from the land that wasonce as much theirs as ours.

●On the left we see the
southerly heat absorbing glass with an exhaust plenum above sounwanted heat can be bled off right at the
source.

●This was the first time I used tree
trunk columns, sloped glazing, and numerous othernature inspired elements.

●Tom & Karin’s Place is set in a
costal forest and seeks to preserve both the forest andthe
“feel” of being in the forest – as opposed to being inside looking out
conventional windows at tree trunks.

●When we were doing the program I told
Karin I understood preserving the forest –
that we would preserve the trees and just
clean up the duff and broken branches – and she said “Why would we do that – they’re part of the forest, too” – Boy,
she really means it!

●To achieve this we made a narrow house
with high walls of glass on opposing sides.

●The feel of the forest extends to the
exterior and like the black finish on the eyepiece ofbinoculars, here the black surround is used to increase the visual
contrast and allow the forest to “read”
right through the house.

●On the one hand this is a pretty
simple box, but it has been pushed considerably – I’malways pushing myself towards a little higher achievement
level.

●One of the things that is accomplished
the use of sloped glass is that it allows the space to push beyond the perceived perimeter wall of the building – and
you experience this much in the way you
might experience a solarium.

●Sometimes I think of design as
searching fora kind of least common
denominator for the key components of the
project – the strongest, simplest, most compelling I can find.The primary
issues I think about are the program, circulation, space/form, and light –
usuallyin relation to the
larger context.

●This is Pins Sur Mer on the Mendocino
coast and I would like to use as an example of being
inclusive versus exclusive.

●Exclusive might be a perfectly complete little jewel box like Philip Johnson’s GlassHouse or Mies’ Farnsworth House.Inclusive might be a more eclectic collection of parts like Richardson’s Glessner House or Charles Moore’s Condominium 1.

●The house is near Point Arena, one of the foggiest places on the coast so I was veryconscious of the need for good natural light.

●About half way through the design the client said she wanted wrap around coveredporches on at least two sides.

●Of course I freaked out but eventually common sense prevailed and to solve the problem pulled the entry deep into the center where we skylit it, opened it up with clerestories to all the surrounding rooms, and thereby more than made up for the light reduced by the covered porches.

●And the (4) log columns became the main structural elements of the house

●This is the living room on the left
and the dining room on the right looking back towardsthe entry.

●By
going with the flow and accepting an inclusive mindset I ended up with a better resultthan I would have had without the
inclusion!